Gravestones for Giants

by G.A. Johnson

A storm moves through the mountains casting a blanket of snow over the buds of early spring. A cabin hunkered between granite boulders waits, cold and empty inside. Not before the storm has passed, these four walls are filled with the burning hopes and fears of a desperate killer and his hostage. Cyrus Loukas believes he’s lost everything, and has come to what used to be his family’s cabin, planning to murder the man he’s projected all his disappointments on. He listens, with gun in hand, for a knock on the door. When it comes, Cyrus finds eleven-year-old Francis McGill shivering on the doorstep. The boy’s grandfather has died and Francis doesn’t think his camping trip can get worse. He’s mistaken. When the door closes behind him, Francis will be the subject of Cyrus’ debate on whether it is better for the young to die with their innocence intact.

Outside the door: boot prints, shell casings, and the blood of local sheriffs mar the fallen snow. Cyrus doesn’t need to deliberate on killing authority figures. When threats and gunfire fail to bring results, can the sheriff’s conceive of a non-violent resolution? Cyrus has already killed three. Someone must face him unarmed if they want to save Francis. Soon they will learn that the person they need doesn’t wear a badge or a holster.

258 pages, Paperback

Published December 11, 19

About the author

I was born on the third of August in the year of our lord nineteen-hundred and eighty-six. If not for a hot check my mother wrote for gasoline, I would have been born in the back of a black Z-28 Camaro. My grandfather danced a jig in the hospital when I was announced to the family as a boy; this was a time when only the rich were able to find out the sex of their unborn babe ahead of time. A writer could not have wished for a better family to grow up in, I come from the most brilliant set of people to ever be mired in the struggles of everyday life. When the beer was poured around the table the stories flowed, and the cast of characters I was born to read like a Steinbeck novel. Death and hardships were abound. We were poor but we were not trash. Some of the sweetest memories I have are nights where my family dared to be joyful in the face of tragedy. I've spent a lifetime trying to figure out how my mother and the rest of us managed to pull through, and that is why I write. You may say that my style is a bit moralist in a sense, and although I write Christian allegory my work would never be found in a Christian bookstore. Come sit by my side and I’ll tell you things that could make a whore blush, but I promise there is no dingy alley of the human experience I’ll take you down without leading you to the light at the other side.

Reviews

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A storm moves through the mountains casting a blanket of snow over the buds of early spring. A cabin hunkered between granite boulders waits, cold and empty inside. Not before the storm has passed, these four walls are filled with the burning hopes and fears of a desperate killer and his hostage. Cyrus Loukas believes he’s lost everything, and has come to what used to be his family’s cabin, planning to murder the man he’s projected all his disappointments on. He listens, with gun in hand, for a knock on the door. When it comes, Cyrus finds eleven-year-old Francis McGill shivering on the doorstep.

“Gravestones for Giants” by G.A. Johnson combines the style of “No Country For Old Men” by McCarthy with the tragic gray-realism that Johnson has become known for. Rather than showing a black-and-white, “this is good that is bad”, Johnson offers a nuanced version of past-transgressions coming to head in present-day decisions. The characters, all around, are stunning. Johnson’s characterizations shine mostly through descriptive action and anecdotes such as, “The sound of an opened beer is the old man’s namesake: Grandma used to sing, ‘When Bud walks by the bottles they go Pop! Pop! Pop!’” which makes their interactions with you as a reader all the more vivid.
Cyrus Loukas may not be much at first glance, with very little given to his overall physical description, but his internal narrative and justifications for the situation he now finds himself in are spell-binding. The world building done to put yourself into Cyrus’s shoes are at once revelatory and heart-breaking. You can feel that cabin between the boulders in every heavy sentence, the chill of it creeping into your bones as you continue your journey with him. Cyrus’s childhood, religious upbringing, and family history are critical aspects to setting up the main-plot of the novel, but could be considered a story unto themselves. Eleven-year-old Francis is easily one of my most favored child characters--at more than one point I found myself emotionally shredded by his predicament. Francis and Cyrus create this amazing character foil of past-and-present childlike bewilderment to the world around them, both of them realizing together that there is no “easy-way-out” to either of their situations, and come together to face the world, regardless of what it holds for them.
Sheriff Bill, and his deputies Travis and Jeremy, add the old-school 1950’s policing vibe that a lot of crime books lack in post-2000’s crime writing. There’s a return to the “old ways” in this novel, where half the stuff that’s happening around town aren’t worth giving a lick about, but that persistent attitude only adds to the drama of the town of Elk Creek when there finally IS something worth talking about going on. There are, of course, humor adding side-characters, who are all well worth the read (dementia riddled old-maid? The mechanic/bar-keep who’s more of a jack-of-all-trades with a mouth? YES PLEASE!)
Johnson also has a clear grasp on dialogue, and at no point do the characters dialogue interfere with the flow of the story as a whole. In fact, I’d say Johnson’s dialogue is one of the main reasons anyone who has an interest in picking up one of his novels should. Many authors struggle to create realism when their characters interact, whereas Johnson’s characters take the reins and story into their own hands. They’re incredibly immersive, even when speaking about topics I may not be otherwise interested in (pre-1950’s baseball, for instance, was incredibly entertaining to read about when it was a conversation between two characters rather than a history lesson).
Antagonistically, there’s the internal diatribe of Cyrus (see, “What’s right, what’s wrong, where do I stand?”) contrasted with the arrogance of a man we all know well; one who only sees money, and it’s profits and gains. Whereas there’s a very real, persistent threat to the “bad” side of Cyrus, the ultimate disgust is thrust upon the reader when the main antagonist literally refuses any and all demand with, “Well, sunk costs and all.” I mean, we all have someone like that in our lives who we’d love to see hit with the same hammer of “I-have-you-don’t” mentality that he prescribes too. 
Admittedly, there is very little done with female characters in this novel, apart from them being there, but at the same time, I’m glad it was done with tact. The female characters that are there have a purpose, and don’t need some tragic thrown together backstory to explain them. They serve a purpose, fulfill it, and move on--which is nice to see in a time when a lot of characters who don’t need a full chapter of backstory to explain why they exist get it anyways. This is very much a story about Cyrus and Francis, and Bill; how they interact, what they mean to each other, how they play off each other's past and future, which I respect immensely. You don’t need a full cast of “every character is lovable!” when you have three really well rounded people shouldering the whole story in a brilliant fashion. 
Packed full of wit, charm, and more than its fair share of danger, Gravestones for Giants is a triumph, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants that ol’ school detective razzle-dazzle vibe. In a time where it seems that all stories are post-2000s or pre-1900’s, it’s comforting to see an author return to the American dream roots.

[Edward Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Action packed!

I found the detailed scene building and character descriptions in this book engaging. This author knows that of which he speaks. Gritty and homespun, this book is a home run.